Artist: Miss Van
Miss Van is a French street artist and painter. She began doing street art at 18 in the mid ’90s and is now featured in exhibits all over the world. The main subjects of her paintings are of sultry coquettish women.
Designer: Vivienne Westwood
Westwood is a British designer primarily known for bringing punk fashion to the mainstream. In addition to her innovative designs of the time, she was known for styling her models with outrageous hair and makeup.
Design Statement
Taking inspiration from Westwood, I want to create a gown to accentuate the feminine form. I want to play with volume, transparency, and texture with the fabric. My inspiration from Miss Van will come from the color palette she uses in the above painting. The painting has a dark mood and I wanted to translate that into the distressed feel I gave the gown.
Our dress was inspired by Bridget Tichenor’s piece, Los Encarcelados along with the style of Alexander McQueen. Taking inspiration from the bars, we used tucks along the bodice to create the vertical lines. The dress is completely made from black organza to give a sheer look much like the heads of the piece looking out. We created about 60 cubes around the skirt to mimic the stacked boxes of the piece. Once the dress is put on, the wearer becomes one of the heads looking out of their prison cell.
We had the photoshoot on Friday. At 10:30, we all met up to start on makeup then headed out to the photography studio. I got to do everyone’s nails! We had so much fun at the shoot and can’t wait to see how the photos turn out. Our lookbook was shot by Michael Cruz. Models: Camille, Jeila, Pauline, and Lupe. Makeup artist: Asalia.
